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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hiking a Lava Cave 6.6.12

Over Memorial Weekend, while
trying to find unique and cheap activities, we headed out to Lava Cave National
Park and spent $5 on a parking pass to wander down into a deep, dark cave with
uneven footing and small shafts and winter temps. We could have spent an
additional $5 to rent a lantern from the entrance, but chose to bring our own
emergency light from our house to guide us and kept that Lincoln in our pockets
to use towards lunch.

A lava cave or tunnel is formed
when a river of lava rages through and the lava on top forms a thick crust from
being exposed to the air. The 2,000 degree lava continues to rush under the
crust – and in some cases over it and forms a new shape – and leaves behind an
arch that forms a cave. The flooring can be quite rocky, but eventually it gets
covered in a layer of sand. Halfway into the lava cave in Bend it became fairly
leveled out and had a thick sandy floor. It was like being at the beach, except
cold and super dark. So, pretty much like any evening at the Oregon coast, just
without actual water.

The cave is only open in the
summer, as it is home to bats all day in the winter time. The inside
temperature is 42 degrees all year long, so it could be warmer inside than
outside during the cold months of the year and is a great activity to do when
the desert heat is pounding down on you in the summer. As long as you bring
some good walking or hiking shoes with you and layer up to keep out the chill,
you are good to go. It’s an activity fit for almost everyone that is sure on their
feet. We shared the cave with experienced rock-climbers and hikers and also
with families that had small children in tow.

I would not suggest doing this
after watching a movie like Decent or The Ring, but perhaps you’re braver than
I and are not afraid of monsters hiding in the shadows (or, in this case,
everywhere) that will attack and eat you or scare you to death. Being afraid of
the dark, it was sometimes disconcerting when it was just you and you couldn’t
hear or see anyone in any direction. I could only imagine how eerie the cave
would have been if we had not been visiting during a particularly busy time.

Some of the cool things we saw
and learned were ice sculptures that formed at the mouth of the cave (this used
to be a tunnel, but the one end has been filled in with sand deposits) and then
the sand formations seen further into the cave. Water drips from the roof, just
like in a regular cave and forms structures called lavacicles instead of
stalactites. Water from outside the cave seeps in and forms lavacicles and
sand. You can also see the layers or rock that were formed by the lava when you
examine the cave walls. Pretty cool.

Bend isn’t the only place you
can hike a lava tube, though it is the longest continuous tube in Oregon. Want
to visit a lava tube, too? Some of the more popular ones worldwide, according
to Wikipedia, are:

Iceland

Surtshellir - For a long time, this was the longest known lava tube in the
world.